In the production of sausages, pasty masses are filled into sausage casings by means of filling machines. During the processing of the pasty masses, however, undesired air accumulations occur in the pasty mass.
Therefore, so-called residual air distributors or nozzles have been already used in the outlet, i.e. in an area downstream of the conveyor system or else e.g. in the filling tube.
A dispersion of air bubbles, however, can only be achieved in the area downstream of the conveyor system, i.e. on the pressure side, as corresponding pressure differences are required for this.
However, it is extremely difficult to correctly select air distribution systems which are employed downstream of the conveyor system. A certain distributor inset which deflects and mixes the pasty mass thoroughly to thus homogenize the pasty mass, however, is only suited for a certain field of application. Therefore, various distributor insets are required when the product is changed several times. The distributor insets then must be exchanged in a time-consuming manner, or else a distributor inset must be completely removed if products with relatively large ingredients, e.g. ham sausage, are produced. Therefore, a filling line which, for example, consists of a vacuum filler plus attachments (e.g. metal detectors, clippers, etc.) must be moved apart for inserting or exchanging the distributor insets. However, to change the distributor insets means                expenditure of much time,        functional problems (e.g. the casing brake at the clipper must be readjusted),        misalignments of the individual units as to their angularity and height (undesired distortions and warping at components)        relatively long interruption of the production operation, and        physical strain in case of heavy attachments (e.g. moving heavy clip machines).        
The known distributor insets act as throttles due to a reduction of the cross-section and initially cause a pressure build-up in the outlet of the conveyor system, i.e. in front of the distributor inset.
FIG. 11 shows a corresponding distributor inset. This pressure build-up, however, varies depending on the filling rate and further parameters, e.g. the consistency and viscosity of the mass, temperature, air content, etc.
The distributor insets have a fixed sectional area of flow in the installed state, therefore, a conveyor system pressure depending on the filling speed builds up. For the air to be able to uniformly distribute in the product by using the distributor inset, a corresponding conveyor system pressure must be built up.
With too little pressure build-up, the air is only insufficiently uniformly distributed. With an excessive pressure build-up, the product is mechanically heavily stressed with negative effects on product quality.
Consequently, the distributor's cross-section must match the product consistency and filling speed. Here, a compromise is always only possible if a certain type of distributor is employed.